1. Project Description The project will take place in Peniche, Portugal, from 1st to 8th of September 2014. Peniche is a peninsula and the main activity in its coast is fishing. On the other hand there is another part of the county which is a very productive rural area, because it is situated near the ocean and the land is very fertile. The youth exchange will be based on multiple activities, all matching with the basic principles of non-formal and informal learning such as interactive speeches and seminars, presentations, experiential learning, thematic visits, workshops on the subject of agriculture, games related to environmental issues, round tables, energizers, icebreakers, online research, group exercises, brainstorming and intercultural activities. The main content element of the program will be to promote the contact with the family farming/agriculture to the participants from different countries using the arts and manual work to deal with this thematic. We chose the theme of the Youth Exchange (Family farming) because we believe that it is necessary to increase the interest of the youngsters about this theme. Another reason is the fact that the United Nations launched the International Year of Family Farming as an effort to highlight that the potential family farmers have to eradicate hunger, preserve natural resources and promote sustainable development. 2. Methodology: The youngsters will be divided in 4 multicultural groups (Arts; Agriculture; Cooking and Media Group), in which they will have the opportunity to share with the other participants their competences and to learn from the rest of the group and from the leaders. The big aim is to develop a deeper contact with the motherland. 2014 is also the year of European citizens and family farming so we think that we combine these 2 subjects and this will provide youngsters from different European countries with the opportunity to learn about the importance of changing their minds about the preservation of the environment and stimulating their active citizen participation in the EU. At the end of the exchange we plan to organize an exhibition for the local community of Peniche in order to present the final work of each one of the 4 groups. This way we will provide the local people with evidence that the cultural borders fade away through the use of art and other dynamics. We also will offer the final products of some of the workshops to local solidarity organizations. 3. The aims of this Youth Exchange will be: - To increase the knowledge of the young people on the topics of family agriculture and small farms and its important role in eradicating hunger and poverty; provision of food security and nutrition; improved livelihoods; natural resource management; environmental protection and sustainable development, particularly in rural areas. - To raise the awareness of different ecological problems and highlight the necessity of active participation of all citizens and especially of the young people in the field of family agriculture. This aim will be achieved through several workshops of art, agriculture, media and cooking. - To promote the knowledge that the methods and ways of non-formal education have the capacity to integrate people from different nationalities in a single group. - We believe that in the frames of the different workshops each youngster will find his right place in the project and this will increase his personal development and will help for the enhancement of his self-esteem. - To increase the awareness of the importance of European active citizenship among the young people. This idea has come up because we think that this theme is very interesting for the youngsters and the idea came with a lot of enthusiasm. It’s the first time that we will work with the four partners involved in this project and we have the will and the intention to build a strong relation with them that will lead to the implementation of other projects in the future. All the partners involved already have experience in youth exchanges under the Youth in Action program. We have been sharing our ideas with our partners and all the partners found the topic of the family agriculture very attractive. We all believe that the topic brings one to the consciousness and focuses youngsters´ attention on their important role in eradicating hunger and poverty. We believe that the topic of family agriculture has the potential to easily connect people from different cultures. For us one of the most important objectives of this project is the promotion of creativity and entrepreneurship, the increase of the active youth participation and social awareness, and we plan to achieve these goals through the 4 workshops of agriculture, arts, media and cooking, all of them under the topic of family farming. The youngsters will gain an insight into these problems within a broader European perspective by learning about each other, different cultures, different models of social.